"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Thurber Tonight: Keith Olbermann reads the conclusion of "The Greatest Man in the World"

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Keith Olbermann reads Part 3 of Thurber's "The Greatest Man in the World."

The last two nights we had Part 1 and Part 2 of Keith Olbermann's Countdown "Fridays with Thurber" reading of Thurber's "prophetic" story "The Greatest Man in the World." Here's the conclusion, which apparently appeared only online. -- Ken

TOMORROW AND THURSDAY IN THURBER TONIGHT

For the record, "The Greatest Man in the World" first appeared in book form in The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze, a 1935 collection a fair amount of which was absorbed into The Thurber Carnival. I thought that since we've already dipped into The Middle-Aged Man, we might finish out the week with two pieces further pieces from it, which might be thought of as two skirmishes in "The War Between Men and Women."

These are not, um, comfortable relationships we're going to be peeking at, and yet even so, there are distinctions to observe. Our stories fall on opposite sides of an invisible line that marks, well, the line -- the line that once you've stepped over, you've overstepped. We begin tomorrow night with "The Topaz Cufflinks Mystery." (Okay, if you must know, Thursday night's story is one I find seriously amusing but also strikingly, ineffably poignant, "The Curb in the Sky.")